Chen-ou Liu's Translation Project: First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog

Friday, June 21, 2019

Nothing New under the Sun

Sunlight slants in through the study window, reaching the front page of today's newspaper on my coffee-stained  desk.  The headline story details the latest Auditor General's report. His report states that the socio-economic  gap on  reserves hasn't improved in the last two decades, and the gap in high-school graduation rates has actually  widened.According to the reporter, things got a little nasty Monday afternoon at the Indigenous Affairs meeting as  MPs grilled civil servants over the gap. One MP even warned, "heads need to roll if bureaucrats don't shape up on  First Nations education." His warning becomes today's eye-catching headline.

sixth graders
in the windowless classroom
on the reserve
a new teacher talks about
thinking outside the box

Atlas Poetica, 36, 2019